Preferential Trade Agreements in Africa: Lessons from the Tripartite Free Trade Agreements and an African Continent-Wide FTA

Economic transformation is an important pre-requisite for African countries to maximize the benefits of globalization. The development outcomes of the transformation process are conditioned on the one hand by the level of inclusiveness and on the other by the sustainability of the development pathways, among other factors. Building on experiences since the new millennium, in which Africa has witnessed rapid and sustained high levels of economic growth, and informed by the policy discourse that accompanied the formulation of the Common African Position on Sustainable Development Goals, African countries have charted a transformation path in which they aspire to play to their comparative advantages.